It Started with Christmas: A heartwarming feel-good Christmas romance

by Jenny Hale

  “Hey there, Miss Princess!” Kay said, barreling through the door and plastering Holly with a hug, her hair tickling Holly’s nose.

  Holly wanted to hold on to her, not letting go, so she wouldn’t have to face Rhett. She knew he’d press her for answers about her feelings for him, and she just wasn’t ready to have that conversation. She didn’t know where they were supposed to go from this point.

  When Kay finally moved away from her to introduce herself to Joe, Holly was face to face with Rhett. He was all cleaned up. He’d styled his hair again, his eyes already full of questions, as he held out a basket. “Food,” he said with a crooked grin. “Mama made biscuits and her famous dill dip and veggies.” Then he shot her a knowing look before clamping his eyes on Joe, his voice still addressing Holly. “And we made you sweet potato pie. I know it’s your favorite.” He said that last word as if he were the most knowledgeable of anyone about Holly’s favorite things.

  Joe smiled politely, unruffled.

  Kay took the basket from Rhett and headed toward the kitchen while Rhett stepped inside, shutting the door behind him. “Where’s your nana?” Kay asked, not waiting for an answer as she unpacked the basket on the kitchen counter.

  “I’ll see if Kay needs help,” Joe said, noticeably giving Rhett and Holly a moment. He left them without another word.

  “Please don’t spend the whole night spouting passive aggressive jealous comments,” she barked right off the bat, her voice at a clipped whisper. Rhett had hardly gotten through the door before the jab about knowing her favorite pie. Joe had done nothing to deserve that.

  Rhett stepped back, looking offended. But then he bucked up again, his emotions on some kind of roller coaster. “That guy’s not your type,” he said with an annoyed grimace. It was apparent that he couldn’t stand the idea of Holly with anyone.

  “How would you know? You’ve been gone so long you can’t claim to be an expert on my type. Unless you just assume that my type is someone like you.”

  He wavered again and she was aware of how quickly she could hurt him. “We could be pretty good together, Holly. Being with you is so easy,” he said, his voice calmer now, the past slithering between them. “He brings out the worst in me.”

  Holly followed Rhett’s line of sight to where Joe was standing in the kitchen, and she saw that Joe was looking back at her. Nana stepped up beside him and he quickly cleared his throat and asked her if she needed anything.

  Rhett took a step toward her, his tall frame filling up the space between them, his soft stare looming over her as he put his hands on her arms tenderly and kissed the top of her head. “I’ll try to keep my opinions in check,” he said. “I’ll do it for you.” Then he bent his knees just a little to face her eye to eye. “But I still want to talk about us later.”

  “Us?” she said, pointing out yet another assumption.

  Rhett slid his hands down her arms and intertwined his fingers with hers. “Yeah, us.” He gave her that grin that she imagined would melt the hearts of every twenty-something that pressed herself against the stage at his concerts. “We may be in different places—I don’t know yet—but when I think about all the memories I have with you, it’s definitely an ‘us’ for me.”

  Her resolve crumbled just a little at his admission because she knew exactly what Rhett meant. She missed him terribly. “Can we just be the ‘us’ that we were for a little while and not push things?” she asked.

  Before he could answer, Nana was behind them. “I’m setting the table,” she announced. “And I’ve opened a bottle of wine. I think it would be wise for all of us to drink some.”

  When Holly got to the kitchen, she saw that Nana had put her favorite wine glass with the purple stem at one end of the table, and Joe and Rhett were on either side by her. Kay’s plate was beside Rhett’s and Nana was next to Joe.

  “That looks delicious, Nana,” Rhett said. He kissed her cheek as he rounded the corner of the table to sit down next to his mother, his chair making a scraping sound against the new kitchen tile.

  “I remember a little boy who wouldn’t touch casserole,” Nana said, a rare smile emerging.

  “Do you remember when we were kids and Nana made us eat that green bean casserole that day, Holly?” Rhett looked over at her laughing. “We told her we’d eaten it, but we’d stuffed it inside napkins in our laps. Nana, you told us how good we were for using our manners.”

  Holly hadn’t thought about that in years. “After lunch, we were so hungry, we took our chore money down to Puckett’s and bought Moon Pies and RC Cola.”

  “I’ve wondered what’s wrong with you two over the years,” Nana teased. “That’s why the both of you are such a mess—eating chocolate cookies and soda as brain nourishment when you could’ve had my green bean and chicken casserole. You’d better make up for lost time now.” She reached over and heaped an enormous lump onto Rhett’s plate, sliding it to the other side of the table. He blew her a kiss, charming her as he always did.

  “What’s a Moon Pie?” Joe asked, the entire table turning his way.

  The others looked a bit puzzled by Joe’s question, but Holly found it endearing. She wanted to get up from the table right now, take him by the hand, and walk down to Puckett’s to get him one. Rhett gave her a look that said, “I told you he’s not your type.”

  “It’s a graham cracker and marshmallow sandwich dipped in chocolate,” she said to him, trying not to allow her gaze to linger. She wanted to drink in that curiosity of his and let it fill her up, but she knew, just like Otis’s iced tea, that it wasn’t good for her.

  “They come in different flavors, though,” Kay added. “I like the vanilla ones, myself. How about you, Jean?”

  Nana rubbed her face in contemplation, the decision clearly a tough one. “I have a hard time choosing,” she said.

  Rhett was quiet, which wasn’t like him at all. When Holly turned toward him, she noticed his eyes darting between her and Joe, and she realized that, despite her internal warning, she’d kept her attention on him after the others had started talking. Rhett’s silence was at least a step in the right direction. He hadn’t made any sarcastic comments. But she did feel embarrassed that he’d caught her looking at Joe.

  There was a palpable silence after the Moon Pie discussion—Nana had clearly noticed—their conversation dwindling into quiet bites of casserole. They ate together, soundlessly, with only a little conversation between Nana and Kay until it was nearly unbearable, but with Rhett and Joe at the same table, Holly didn’t really know what to say. She tried to think of all the things she did at work to get the conversation going, but her mind was totally blank, so she just ate.

  Due to the lack of conversation, everyone ate relatively quickly. “Rhett,” Nana finally said, undoubtedly to break the silence. They were finishing dinner and Holly prayed they could all get up and turn on the TV or Christmas music before they had to endure dessert under the same awkward hush. “What do you have on the agenda for after Christmas? Any new music coming our way?”

  Rhett held a forkful of his last bite of casserole above his plate as he addressed Holly with his answer. “I’m going on a tour of the west coast for a few months, and then I’ll be back in the studio.”

  “How lovely!” Nana eyed Holly, trying to urge her to mention something, but Holly wasn’t sure what she wanted her to say. With a small frustrated breath meant just for her, Nana smiled and said to Rhett, “You know, Holly’s planning to travel extensively soon. Perhaps you two could meet up somewhere.”

  “Really?” Rhett said, shocked.

  A new interest sheeted over Joe’s face like a downpour on a summer night.

  “I haven’t known Holly to be the traveling type.” Rhett set his fork down and leaned on his elbows, grinning.

  “That would be nice, Rhett,” Kay said. “Maybe y’all could spend New Year’s together.”

  “Holly, we’ll still be planning the wedding then,” Joe said, clearly concerned.

  Rhe
tt dropped his fork and it fell with a clatter onto his plate, his eyes the size of saucers. He almost said something before he clamped his mouth shut, his jaw tightening. Clearly trying to keep control of himself, he got up and gathered his dishes. “Thank you for the delicious dinner,” he said, and Holly wondered if she was the only one who could hear the strain in his voice. “My guitar’s outside in the truck. I need to go get it. Holly, come with me?”

  Not wanting Rhett to make some kind of scene with whatever his stress was now, she complied, following him to the front door. “Be right back,” she said to Joe as she left, hoping that Nana and Kay would include him in conversation.

  They’d barely shut the door behind them on the front porch when Rhett whirled around, his face full of fury, causing Holly to stumble backwards and catch herself by grabbing the doorframe.

  “You’re marrying that guy?” he spit the words at her.

  That’s when it all made sense, and she let out a laugh only serving to infuriate him further. “No!” she said quickly to keep Rhett from completely losing his temper. But she couldn’t get the explanation out for the laughing. But she got herself together so she could set him straight. “Rhett, he’s getting married to another woman. I’m planning the wedding for them.”

  To her surprise, this clarification seemed to confuse him more than when he thought she was the one walking down the aisle. He stared at her, his lips parted just slightly, the skin between his eyes puckered in bewilderment. He took a step away from her, some sort of clarity dawning.

  “What?” she asked, his reaction bothering her.

  “You have the hots for a married guy?”

  “He isn’t married. He’s getting married.” She knew right away that she’d focused on the wrong point there… Even to her, the answer was flimsy and transparent. “But no, I don’t,” she added quickly.

  Rhett searched her face, skeptical. He was looking at her the way he did when they played board games and he was formulating his strategy. “You don’t have the hots for him?”

  “Stop saying that,” she said, getting frustrated. “And no, I don’t have the hots for Joe Barnes.” She hoped that over time she could convince herself of this.

  He still didn’t look convinced, but challenge filled his eyes. “Then come to California with me.”

  “What?”

  “I can work my plans around that wedding. When is it?” He didn’t let her answer. “There’s nothing keeping you here. You want to travel all of a sudden. Knowing you, you haven’t even researched where you’re going. I can show you the country. I’ve been all over it.”

  An unexpected memory floated into Holly’s mind: when they were teenagers, they used to hike through the woods outside Leiper’s Fork. Holly would get turned around, lost, unable to find her way back, but Rhett always took her hand and led the way, and no matter how far they went, when she followed him, he got her back home.

  “I don’t think so.” The point of this trip was to clear her head, and she doubted very seriously that being with Rhett would allow her to do that.

  “You know you don’t want to travel by yourself. Really, Holly. Think it through.”

  She was trying to think it through and all that came to mind was the real reason for the trip. It couldn’t work…

  “I’ll be on my best behavior, I promise. I know how you don’t like crowds. I won’t make you come to the concerts. It’ll be just you and me and the wide-open road. Come on, Hol. I promise it’ll be like old times.” He made an air cross over his heart, those eyes of his so much like they had been before he’d left, making her ache for the days she’d spent with her best friend. His honesty was evident.

  Their years of experiences together, if stacked up, towered over the measly pile of excuses for going alone, and Holly wondered if she’d shot the idea down too quickly. It might actually be nice having Rhett with her to see the country. She’d never considered it before, but the way he was acting toward her now, it seemed like a viable possibility. She could have her best friend back…

  “You know that we’re only going as friends,” she warned.

  Excitement ballooned in his eyes and Rhett picked her up right there on the porch and spun her around. “Is that a yes?”

  She pushed against him until he set her back down. “If you promise to keep yourself under control. The minute you pressure me to be anything more than what we already are, I’ll be on the next flight out.”

  Rhett let out a hoot of joy and then ran to the truck, nearly slipping on the ice in his elation. “We’re gonna have the time of our lives,” he called over to her. That self-assured smile spread across his face.

  “I hope so,” she said. And she meant it.

  After Rhett had been to the truck, they went back up to the house. He swung his guitar case through the open doorway by the handle, his other arm around Holly. Everyone had moved to the living room, their heads all turned in Holly’s direction.

  “Guess who I talked into going to California with me,” Rhett said, giving Holly a kiss on the cheek before hopping over the back of the sofa and bouncing down, guitar and all, beside Nana, giving her a start.

  Nana laughed, her eyes dancing delightedly over to Holly.

  Joe got up suddenly to poke the dwindling fire, his back to them before Holly had a chance to catch his expression. What was she hoping to see anyway? Why would he have any opinion whatsoever about what she did with her free time? It would be after the wedding, so she was certain he’d be fine with it. The fire popped and flickered angrily as Joe moved a log. When he turned around, he smiled respectfully again, his face completely unreadable.

  His phone buzzed in his pocket and he pulled it out to check it.

  “Please, excuse me a moment,” he said, leaving the room without even a glance in Holly’s direction.

  Rhett opened his case and pulled out his guitar. Even in the flashy videos Holly had tried not to watch when they’d come on, she’d noticed that he still had the same guitar. Knowing Rhett, he could end up a multimillionaire and he still wouldn’t get a new one. It was like a family member, a brother, that loyal companion that never left his side.

  He strummed a few notes of “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas,” as Kay and Nana looked on, and Holly immediately fell into the trance of it. It took her back to all the holidays he’d played for her, the Christmas days when Rhett would show up with his guitar slung across his back, and whatever new gadget he’d unwrapped that morning in his hand. He’d always been too impatient to wait to show her, and he’d run all the way down the road first thing Christmas morning.

  Now, with Kay and Nana there, the lights of the tree, stockings on the mantle, and Rhett back in town, it finally felt like home. And she wondered: the last time Rhett had asked her to travel with him, if perhaps she was supposed to have gone. Maybe that was her destiny. Was she fighting against what was meant for her? Holly studied him, those familiar breaths of his between quiet lyrics and the way his fingers moved on the strings in a way that only his did. It certainly would make things much easier if she were in love with Rhett—her problems would be solved.

  “I apologize,” Joe said, coming back into the room, interrupting Holly’s spell of nostalgia and contemplation. He finally looked Holly in the eyes and Rhett stopped strumming. “That was Katharine. My fiancée,” he added for the benefit of Rhett and Kay. “She said the Nashville Airport is up and running again and she booked a ticket for December twenty-sixth. Think the roads will be good enough to bring her out here?”

  “I’ll go get her myself,” Rhett said. His words to Joe came off kind finally, but Holly was willing to bet that if Rhett had his way, he’d marry them the minute Katharine set foot on solid ground.

  “Or we could go into Nashville to meet her,” Nana suggested. If Rhett would marry them, Nana would roll out the runner leading to the altar.

  Kay leaned forward in her chair to join the conversation. “I think the high temperature tomorrow and Christmas Day is well abov
e freezing, so a lot of this mess will melt. You should be fine, but regardless, we’ll get her here. I’m sure you miss her.”

  Holly waited for a mannerly response like he was so good at, but it never came. Instead, he nodded, a faraway look in his eyes.

  Twenty-Two

  After Rhett and Kay left, Nana shooed Holly and Joe away when they tried to help clean up after dinner, and when she finished, Nana went on to her room to read and settle down before bed. Holly asked Joe to stay in the living room a little while longer to go over the specifics of the wedding so she could have some real answers for Katharine when she arrived.

  “Are you or Katharine planning to send a little gift to your wedding party?” Holly asked, chewing on the end of a pencil as Joe poured them each a glass of wine. She’d brought in a bottle that was left from dinner and two glasses. The fire was still going, and they’d settled on the sofa, both of their laptops open on the coffee table in front of them.

  Joe set the bottle down and picked up his glass. “What for?” he asked, taking a drink.

  “Well, either you can give them a small gift at rehearsal or you can have something sent to their homes to say you’re honored to have them there. It’s sort of a thank-you.”

  Joe leaned forward and opened a browser on his computer. “Let’s search for a good bottle of wine to have delivered to them,” he said, then grabbed his own glass and held it up as if he were toasting someone, that genuine smile surfacing and making her wish she could have known him under different circumstances.

  She took a large glug of her own wine, not wanting to think about it. Instead, she allowed an image to filter into her mind of Rhett taking her to a bar where they’d stay up too late and laugh all the way back to the hotel. He could always make her laugh. Sometimes, they’d get going so much that her sides would ache, only making them both laugh harder. Rhett was part of the fabric of her youth; he made her who she was. Sure, he had his faults, but nobody was perfect.